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Thursday, August 27, 2015

A French variety of cantaloupe, Delice de la Table, is being harvested presently in our potager. Its sweetness, flavour, shape, and colour are exceptional, but not its texture which is a bit fibrous so into the lassi glass it goes!

Raspberries are from our potager also

With judicious sieving, this makes a creamy, energising, late-summer breakfast or lunch.

Confectioner's/icing/powdered sugar for sweetening to taste the raspberry cream

Garnishes: melon slivers and raspberries

Put the raspberries in a fine sieve over a bowl. First crush with a fork and then squash around with a rubber spatula, making sure you use a clean spatula to scrape the outside bottom of the sieve. Blend a heaping tablespoon of yogurt and one of cream with the raspberry coulis. Sweeten with powdered sugar to taste. Put in the freezer.

Put the cubed melon along with the ginger into a food processor and mix until mostly crushed. Make a melon coulis the same way you did with the raspberries omitting mashing first with a fork. Whisk the melon coulis and yogurt till smooth.

Pour into a tall glass, spoon on the raspberry cream, and top with fresh melon/berries. Velvety and with an exquisite taste, this lassi made me glad that there are melon seeds for planting next season.

The days are still hot enough that I stay indoors except for early morning and evening so I often peek out through the shutters/awning.

Golden acorn squash is close to harvest

Ivy growing up one of the pergola's pillar and a sprawling rose of Sharon

The last car The Calm One and I owned was when we lived in America about a quarter of a century ago! That's because combustion-engine cars are hot, noisy, stinky, drip oil at the latest provocation, eat up gasoline more quickly than I a meal, and depreciate faster than paper currency. Not to mention their deleterious impact on the environment. Since then we made do with company/rental cars, public transportation, our feet, and in the case of grocery shopping, The Calm One's back. However, at present, there is a suitable option. Though our sweet dreams are made of Tesla, we settled for a Renault Zoe.

Basically a computer on wheels, here it is charging merrily away

We both love how it accelerates, briskly that is, like all electric vehicles, and quietly, so much so, we are constantly surprising pedestrians who first are startled and then break into contagious smiling. Expect a lot of tootling about from us. Beaujolais Nouveau season is around the corner...then there is Toulouse...and we can't forget Aubeterre sur Dronne or Bouteville or Charmant...

Welcome! A weekly post is published midweek usually on Wednesday which focuses on what is happening in our potager and kitchen. Additionally, there can be book reviews and summaries of excursions done in France. I enjoy researching questions, so ask away in the comments. What is happening in your kitchen and garden interests me so I would love hearing your stories. (NOTE: A G+ account is required in order to comment).